


One Step to Accomplice

by EmeraldHeiress



Series: Shards of Kyber [12]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Canon Compliant, Don't copy to another site, Dubious Ethics, Dubious Morality, Gen, Han Has the Wrong Idea, Implied Luke Skywalker/Obi-Wan Kenobi, Implied Relationships, Introspection, Light Angst, POV Outsider, potential dub con
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-17
Updated: 2020-10-17
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:47:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27057457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldHeiress/pseuds/EmeraldHeiress
Summary: Han had seen it more times than he could count — the same story. Over and over again.
Series: Shards of Kyber [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1847170
Comments: 13
Kudos: 159
Collections: New SW Canon Server Works





	One Step to Accomplice

**Author's Note:**

> A caution: This is all Han's point of view and obviously doesn't represent reality. How much you read into it is up to you. It is open to interpretation. Please take caution in reading this fic if you're sensitive to dubious consent or general consent elements.

Han had seen it more times than he could count — the same story. Over and over again.

Poor kid. 

He hoped that when the boy realized what he had actually signed up for that it wasn’t too hard of a blow. That the old man was gentle, at least. That he was good to him. He’d seen too many young teens damaged; left empty and used and broken by the men they’d trusted. 

The men that promised they’d take care of them. Take them away from everything. From that dreary life they came from. The streets, the farm, the _family_. It was all the same. Promised them brighter, better futures.

He’d been one of those himself. Once upon a time. 

_What did he promise you, kid?_ He wanted to ask. Wanted to beg the kid to walk away. Wanted to tell him what really waited for him on whatever planet their final destination actually was. He knew that the first leg was never the final. Not for these types. 

Not when they’re booking him.

But he knew the boy wouldn’t listen. Words of defense, of rationalization, would spill from his lips. About how decent, how _good_ , the old man was. How he wouldn’t do that — would never do anything like that. How could Han think something like that?

Like the seed of ~~cruelty, lust, greed~~ evil didn’t hide in the hearts of all sentients.

A muscle in his jaw clenched at the thought, at the memories. He had tried, a few times. When he’d first started running freight and freelancing jobs. Taking passengers and seeing what the rest of the galaxy had to offer. He’d tried to save them.

They had never listened.

Bright blue eyes sparkling with life — with fire — eyed him with contempt. The spirit in them was probably what attracted the old man in the first place. Han didn’t let it bother him. Any other time, any other fare, and he would. Who was this brat, barely old enough to wipe his nose, to sneer at him for the way he made his living? 

Yet for this… he could only feel empty. Faint stirrings of pity ruthlessly squashed. The boy didn’t know what he was getting into. Soon, though, Han was sure, he would learn what he had truly sold himself for.

It wasn’t going to be some cushy office job, or spot at the academy, or whatever karking lie he had been told. He’d lay money the kid was going to earn his way on his back. With those blue eyes, with those plush lips, with that golden hair? There was little chance of anything else.

Deep in his heart, Han wished he had room for morals. He wondered how good it would feel to turn away this passage. To ferry the boy somewhere else, anywhere else, for free. Or take him on as a crew member. ~~To save him.~~

But the money… the money and the debt — the _price_ — on his head meant that he couldn’t.

As he watched, a hand wrapped around a shoulder, patting gently. Lips twisted in a smile underneath a hood. Entirely too familiar with the boy, as far as Han was concerned, but he kept his mouth shut. A blond head turned toward the owner of the hand and beamed. That ridiculously open, outer rim farm boy smile. Innocent and pure and _oh-so-naive_.

Something in Han’s gut clenched. 

This boy was going to get eaten alive. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, letting it out slow, releasing the tension with it.

He wasn’t sure seventeen thousand was worth this… but what choice did he have? He had Chewy set a course for Alderaan. 


End file.
